1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electrostatic image developing carrier, an electrostatic image developing developer using the same, an electrostatic image developing developer cartridge using the electrostatic image developing developer, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
At present, methods of forming an electrostatic latent image and then visualizing the latent image into image information, such as electrophotography, are used in various fields. In electrophotography, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoreceptor in a charging step and a light-exposing step, the electrostatic latent image is developed with a developer containing a toner, and then the image is made visible via a transferring step and a fixing step.
The developer used in this case is a two-component developer composed of a toner and a carrier, or a one-component developer made only of a toner, such as a magnetic toner. Out of the two developers, the two-component developer has widely been used in recent years because, as the carrier partially carries out the functions of stirring, transportation and charging of the developer component, the functions of the developer are separated into two components; consequently the developer has good controllability and other characteristics. In particular, a developer wherein a carrier comprising a core material and a resin for coating the core material (a resin-coated carrier) is used has improved charging controllability, and its dependency on its environment can be reduced with relative ease.